How to Record Sound with AirPods

The best devices are the ones that act like all-in-ones. The Apple AirPods are one of those – you can listen to music, talk to Apple’s digital assistant, make calls, and more. These convenient and powerful earbuds have a microphone too.

What you can’t do is record audio while using your iPhone camera – your AirPods won’t pick up the sound. They don’t act like a conventional sound recorder.

However, there are some other recording-related things they can do with Siri’s help.

Replying to Messages

One way of recording your voice is by turning it into text with your voice assistant. If you can’t type at the moment, but Siri read you a message you’ve just received, you can reply by telling Siri to do it for you.

The only thing you need to do is to start your response with “Reply.” Before Siri sends the message, she will repeat your words and ask you to confirm. You can turn off the confirmation feature, but why not double-check before your message is gone, and it’s too late?

To successfully reply by using your voice, you need to make sure the microphone settings are set to what you need. You can access the microphone within the pods through your Bluetooth settings.

1. Open the AirPods case to allow your iOS device to access the AirPods’ settings.
2. Open the Settings app on your phone and select Bluetooth.
3. Find your AirPods on the list and tap the little blue “i” icon next to them.
4. Scroll down to find the Microphone section and choose the settings the suit your needs. The microphone’s default setting is Automatic, so the pod that’s in your ear is the microphone. You can make just one of the earbuds always be the microphone if you want to use one instead of both. These settings won’t change even when you put the AirPods back to their case.
   

Live Listening

You can also listen to what’s going on around your phone when the microphone is on. It’s called live listening, and it’s easy to set up.

1. Open the Settings app on your phone.
2. Select Control Center.
3. Tap on Customize Controls to see more options.
4. Scroll to find Hearing. Tap the circle icon on the left to make it green.
5. Tap Back in the top left corner to save your choice.
6. You’ve added the Live Listen option to the Control center.
7. Go back to the Control center and tap the Ear icon.
8. Select Live Listen.
9. Put the phone close to the sound source. Adjust the volume on your AirPods to hear well.

Voice Memos

Downloading the Voice Memos app allows you to record audio and later listen to it on your AirPods. Here’s how to do it:

1. Download the Voice Memos app to your phone.
2. Ask Siri to open the app or launch it yourself and tap the red circle to start recording.
3. When you’re done, tap the red square to finish recording.

Your iPhone will save the memos in the iCloud. You can also trim, delete, and share these voice memos.

How to Edit a Voice Memo

To edit a memo, you should:

1. Select the one you’d like to alter.
2. Tap the three-dot icon to open a menu where you’ll select Edit Recording.
3. Place the blue playhead where you want the edited part to start. Tap Replace to record a new message over the existing one.
4. Tap the pause icon when you finish and select Done to save the memo.

How to Delete a Part of the Voice Memo

If you want to delete a part of your voice memo, do the following:

1. Open the one you want to delete something from.
2. Tap on the three-dot icon and then Edit Recording.
3. Tap the little blue square icon and use the yellow handles to mark the part you want to go.
4. Choose Delete and then Save. If that’s all, select Done to save changes.

How to Share a Voice Memo

You can listen to these memos on your AirPods as long as they’re connected to your device. If you want to share them with someone, follow these steps:

1. Select the memo you’d like to share.
2. Tap the three-dot icon and then Share.
3. Pick the app and the contact you want to share the voice memo with.

How to Delete a Voice Memo

If you want to delete a voice memo altogether, you should do this:

1. Select the memo you’d like to delete.
2. Select the trash icon.

If you accidentally delete a memo, you can restore it by tapping the Recently Deleted option and choosing the one you want to restore. Tap Recover, and then Recover Recording to confirm. Note that you can’t recover a memo if it’s been more than 30 days since you deleted it.

No Need to Type

Having AirPods in your ears is like having an assistant in your head. They can be a lifesaver – the fact that you can reply to a message without looking at your phone means no texting while driving! They come in handy in plenty of situations, and what’s best, they’re so simple to connect and use.

Have you already used your AirPods to reply to messages, recording voice memos, or live listening? Share your experience in the comments section below.